Optimized versions of Firefox: are they worth it?

"BinaryTurf posted some numbers here.

Firefox, default on SunSpider:

Total: 5306.4ms +/- 0.9%

Firefox, SSE2 optimized on SunSpider:

Total: 5295.6ms +/- 1.7%

A net 0.2% speed improvement IF the numbers were spot on. They don't make a strong case for themselves.

There are SSE2 optimizations targeted at highly specialized desktop applications like Lightwave or specific Photoshop rendering algorithms, but Firefox has little in common with those. The bulk of my personal usage is spent fetching text via HTTP, or waiting for my internet connection to load pages. I can't think of a worse situation for an SSE2 optimization, and the results above seem to bear that out."

"In a nutshell: no.

Never believe any of the myths people spread on the net about browsers optimization techniques. Keep in mind that if there were a way to improve Firefox performance noticeably, the Mozilla folks would have already implemented it in the code."